EXCERPT
from BOOK II, Bandita Bonita and Billy the Kid: The Scourge of New Mexico
Chapter 11 / June 1879
Chapter 11 / June 1879
We were about a day’s ride out from Vegas when
Billy chose to put us up in a familiar, secreted cave he had found out about
during one of his many tours through the territory before we’d met. As far as
he knew the cave was concealed carefully enough so that he thought not many
could know of the little cavern—if any knew of it at all. He told me that he
had come to this conclusion based on the fact that whenever he had a use for it
for the purpose of refuge it seemed to remain unexploited by others and was
always as neatly intact as nature would have it, though, he explained, it had
been a while since he had visited the earthen cavity. This would be our first
campout along our way to Las Vegas as we had stayed at the Gerhardt Ranch on
our first day out prior to staying in Puerto de Luna and Anton before arriving
here.
It was close to the rainy season, and so staying put inside of the cavern was a
necessary condition for us should we find ourselves caught in a storm. The day
had burned slow and was heated under a clouded, covered sky. Billy claimed that
a storm was a real possibility, basing this, he said, on the friction he felt
in the air.
There was a natural enclosure positioned just below the cave which was
surrounded by sturdy mountain rock outcroppings and boulders with a
natural overhang where we could shelter the horses. This would provide them
decent enough protection from any rain or should a flash flood manifest
without warning—flash floods were always a source of concern out here; they
were an easy and near unavoidable death if one were caught and exposed by a
merciless desert downpour. Certainly, dangers abounded everywhere out west.
The cave itself was set up high within the mountain, as was the cave in the
hills of Patricio (where we had hidden out just before the 5-days-Battle in
Lincoln), and it, too, had a precarious ridge one must climb to reach the
earthen portico that spread wide before its mouth—the same swatch of land that
created the overhang for the horses below. The cave was set back and nestled
into the mountainside, and this particular cave boasted something of a fictile
shaft made of rock inside that ran up through the mountain like a regular
chimney which allowed for a fire to be lit beneath it, the shaft a flue that
would suck the smoke right up and out, accommodating the terrene lodging in a
way that made it cozy.
We secured the horses and began our ascent of the hazardous, narrow ridge that
hitched along the mountain up toward the cave’s portico, our backs sliding
against the wall of dirt behind us, loosing earth and scree that fell
and bounced on its way down. With his right hand he took my left, guiding me
along the dangerous edge as he negotiated it. With his left hand he held his
gun aloft.
He dragged me as we climbed, causing us to sidle faster than I had expected
along the slim berth of ground. He seemed anxious, wanting to reach our
destination and get settled, his gun poised and at the ready, ears tuned to any
sound that might come from up above; he was primed for misadventure.
He stopped for a moment, listening. An emerging ray of sunlight glinted upon
something on the ground and caught my eye. I lent myself toward it with my free
hand, attempting to grasp the object that had seized my attention. Knees and
body bent, I reached out. The hand that Billy held kept my left arm anchored
upwards as I angled myself toward the item, making my movement awkward. As he
began to move again and pull me along he nearly caused me to lose my balance,
but I had managed to grab the shimmering object and correct myself nonetheless.
It was a pretty locket, covered by a fine sheath of dust. I wiped at it with my
thumb as he continued to pull me along.
We were cresting the ridge and approaching the level ground that surrounded the
cave—a gaping maw set back by an atrium of dirt and rock. Suddenly, the wind
kicked up and Billy turned his nose away, disgusted.
“Oh Jesus...” he sighed.
I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but before I could speak I knew. A
foul stench enveloped us both, causing us to hunker down into one another
against the mountainside and cover our faces in desperation.
“God. What is that?” I yowled.
He
only managed to say something incoherently and moan dreadfully into his
hand.
He rose and turned back, preparing himself to look upon the place in which we
sought. Letting go of my hand he turned to me and told me to stay put. Still
crouching, I placed my hands down to steady myself along the ridge while he left
me there alone. I saw him disappear around the bend at the top and then heard
the firm flapping of wings before seeing black carrion birds scatter
off into the air. And then...nothing. I waited as patiently as I could, but
when his absence proved longer than I would have thought, the silence caused me
to grow uneasy. Still attempting to protect my nose against the
rotting stink with my hand, I called to him through my fingers. When he didn’t
answer, I decided to make my way up the remaining stretch of path. Rounding the
same bend Billy had disappeared around moments before, I saw him. His hand was
over his face, eyes horrifyingly wide at the scene before him.
Two bodies lay by the mouth of the cave. I shrieked in shock, causing him to
turn and see me standing there. Reacting quickly, he began pushing me back
toward the ridge, firmly instructing me to climb back down. After my initial
confusion, I was finally able dig my foot in and slow him from pushing. He
fought against my stubbornness, yelling for me to move, but I was able to calm
him when he became aware that I was deliberately struggling to make him stop.
“What are you doing? Go!”
“Billy, we can’t!”
“Like hell! Go! Move!”
“Billy...the rain!”
Just
then a growl of thunder punctuated my point as it sounded in the near
distance.
He seemed to think on this a moment, then shook it off. “We’ll take our
chances. Did you see what I just saw?” he barked.
“We have to stay here; you know we have to stay here, unless there’s another
place like this we can go—”
His
look turned derisive, sarcastically asking me, “Do you think this is likesome
damned hotel? That we can just request a different room?”
Frazzled,
I hollered back, “Well, I’m sure I don’t know!” I was feeling
provoked and uneasy.
We grew quiet together in our shock, and exasperated, I placed my hands to my
head, pushing my hat back. So we stood together silently, lost in our
own thoughts; Billy considering our situation.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?” He asked out loud, almost as if to
himself.
“Move the bodies,” I casually responded. Resolute.
His expression toward me could only be defined as repugnant. For the moment he
seemed clearly put off and sickened by my suggestion, and then he looked
at me as if I were short on sense.
“You must be out of your cotton-pickin’, east-side mind! I ain’t moving those
damned bodies. I ain’t touching the goddamned things—”
“—I’ll help you—“
“—Like hell—no way! If there’s one person between us two who definitely ain’t
going near them things it’s you, and I ain’t going, neither.”
He began to push me along again but I held fast to my position.
“We have to do this, Billy.”
I looked up at him, into his unblinking, wide blue eyes. He registered this
truth. Twilight was peeking over the desert, and with the prospect of a storm
and the sky growing steadily darker, another rumble of thunder closer off in
the distance turned the simple possibility of a storm into a devastating
reality. He began to nod to himself as if he were mentally gearing up
for what he knew needed to be done—teeth working at his lips as his mind worked
at the unpleasant task that lay ahead.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay…”
He started back toward the gruesome scene, and as I began to follow, he turned
to face me and placed his hand against my shoulder.
“Stay there,” he commanded.
I stopped and let him walk on. I leaned against the mountainside, already
feeling exhausted as I thought over the matter and the unpleasant undertaking
that lie ahead when I heard him gagging. I moved toward him and peered around
to see him sicking up as he knelt close to the body that lay the farthest from
the ridge. When his stomach had expended its contents he stood and came back
toward me.
“I can’t. We have to go. Now!”
“I’ll help you; we have to do this.”
“Aw, hell no, Lucy. Get going!”
I maneuvered around him and stood directly between both corpses, surveying the
macabre tableau.
Both carcasses lay with their guns drawn, the body that Billy had first planned
to move lay half in, half out of the cave. The half of him that lay exposed was
horribly rotted; the gray-green flesh of the head had disintegrated in places,
exposing the skull and desiccated tissue. The face confronted me, its marbled,
black and puffy green colored flesh blistered; tongue eaten at, with what was
left of it protruding through teeth unsheathed by withered, picked-upon
lips; eyes gone. I waved away at the flies that had swarmed, realizing for the
first time the churning black veil that shrouded the moldering flesh which
should have been impossible to miss; the buzzing incessant and quite loud.
I felt my own stomach spasm at this. I hurried away from the bodies
and wretched.
Satisfied,
Billy yelled over to me, “Not so tough now, are ya?”
When my own body had quit shuddering, I looked back at the morose sight. Billy
stood there, a strange look in his eyes as they flitted back and forth between
the two dead men, coat sleeve covering his nose and mouth in an attempt to keep
the malodor from entering his nostrils. I knew this had to be done; we could go
nowhere else. Thunder lightly sounded again from the east, seemingly just
beyond a small mountainous range. I studied the situation some more.
Looking at the angle of the bodies I wondered aloud, “Was it a fight? Did they
kill each other?”
“Hell should I know? Looks like.”
“Okay, let’s just get this over with.”
He walked with me back toward the body we had both become unpleasantly familiar
with.
“Grab him on that side by the jacket,” He said. “We’ll pull him and slide
him over the side.”
I nodded and moved to do what he told me to, then stopped.
“Do you think he has any money or valuables on him?” I asked.
“Jesus Christ. I don’t know. Can we just get this done with?”
Ignoring him, I scampered around and to the other side of the dead man. I was
revolted, seeing a new horror of insects as they scurried
and writhed over and around the corpse.
Cautiously, I gingerly placed
my forefinger and thumb on the edge of the dead man’s lapel and
slowly peeled back his jacket to look for an inside pocket, eventually flipping
the panel over quickly. When I found it, I very warily placed my hand inside.
Billy made sounds of aversion and vocally objected at this, but I pulled out a
billfold. I looked up at him with a wide smile and nodded my head, pleased with
myself. He frowned. I opened the billfold and found some dollar bills inside.
“Count it later,” Billy demanded.
I counted it right then. Nearly fifty dollars! That would do. I dropped the
billfold and observed the body, still waving off the flies that consumed me as
well, as if I could make them go away. The corpse’s legs lay one over
the other and looked to be somewhat intact, but one could not truly tell as the
carcass was fully dressed, and so his pants concealed his lower half. The flesh
around his exposed hand had grown taught and leathery; the other hand was
missing entirely. Thunder sounded again.
“Lucy...”
I glanced quickly up at Billy and, ignoring him a moment longer, checked the
torso and found a clean, gold pocket watch which I hurriedly snapped
away from the body for fear of the things creeping about, and then finally,
returned to helping Billy. We dragged the body together to the edge of the
bluff by the shoulder of its jacket and collar and, despite my dragging a
festering dead body, of which I should have found very odd, all I managed to
think to myself was how light it was. We slid him over the side and he fell a
ways down to the ground but still made an audible thump.
We looked at each other and then at the second body. This one was laid out
fully in the elements. His right, near skeletal hand lay clutched by his chest,
his naturally decimated left hand lay alongside him as he lie prone, his
gun resting on the ground as if it had been dropped there after its owner had
been drilled by a bullet. There was a rucksack nearby him. Billy saw me spy
this and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“After we’re through,” he said.
I nodded, knowing he wanted to get this over with, but still, I was not swayed
from considering the body, looking for anything of worth and seeing nothing. I
thought to check his clothing, but this one was by far worse off than the
other. The skin of the face was gone completely, the chest appeared sunken in
and the rotting shirt had a thick looking, slick stain; the gut hollowed
out. Liquefied, I thought. I noticed a sticky-like
substance pooled around him; biological run-off. The iron nerve I had initially
summoned and maintained fairly failed me at this particular sight and
I ran off again, dry heaving, wracked by the discomfort it caused my body.
When finally we had fulfilled our unpleasant deed and pulled this dead man over
the ledge, we smiled oddly at one another.
Disturbed and with a strange smirk, he said, “Ghoul.”
He walked off to fetch our things from the horses while I hung back and
examined the substantiation of what was here—what remained despite the removal
of the grotesqueries. There were brownish, sticky and dry looking stains left
behind by both bodies, thinly coated by a layer of grime, but the concentration
of the smell had seemed to dissipate. I supposed this might be due to the fact
that we had removed its source from the immediate places, but likely it was
also because I had grown accustomed
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